Unworthy Sacrifice
by LadyNaore
Summary: (A very dark post-game AeriSeph) Aerith was horribly wronged by the Planet, denied acceptance into the Promised Land and condemned to Hell. Desperate for revenge, she reaches out to Sephiroth...
1. Prologue

Unworthy Sacrifice

Prologue

--*--*--

I call 

And there is no reply 

Like some phontom cry 

On ears too far away...

--"No Reply" (Cowboy Bebop)

--*--*--

Silence a deafening silence consuming all that surrounds me devouring all that is within me. This is my Hell. How ironic. How very, truly ironic that I shall suffer through this Hell after all that I have done for my Planet.  
  
I devoted my living days to bearing your wisdom and your agony I spent countless hours praying and desperately trying to cultivate the land, to help ease your pain I cared for you, I even died for you, and for what? This is how you repay me?  
  
Simply because I am a half-breed? Could not the Planet make an exception for its last daughter? For its sacrifice?   
  
I I am so lonely. I miss my friends. I miss Elmyra. I miss my parents.  
  
I knew I was to die for the Planet. I was able to accept this because I longed to be with my parents in the Promised Land! And you deny me even this small pleasure my Planet?  
  
How dare you?  
  
I am doomed to float in a vacant abyss for eternity, because, simply, I had been born. And after all I had done for you, all that I sacrificed, this is my reward.  
  
I hate you, Planet. I hate you. I gave up everything for you, and you dare to deny me the one thing I wanted in return  
  
I could have forsaken you. I could have gone on to live a happy life. We would have died at Meteor's landing, but at least I could have lived. And you would have suffered, Planet. Does not my sacrifice mean anything to you?  
  
Can you not bend the rules for the one daughter who carried out the most noble Cetran duty of them all?  
  
Can you not show mercy upon your martyr?  
  
And you do not answer me any longer. Why? I have completed my tasks; I saved you from Jenova, from Meteor. You're safe. So now why would you waste your time talking to me any longer? You used me, your last daughter. How dare you.

Planet, you would have done well to have been destroyed by Sephiroth. Perhaps he was right. I would rather have been subject to him than to live on in your Hell. I suffer because I helped you. And now I am only sorry that I was ever born of this race.

I am sorry I ever helped you. I am sorry that I didn't ignore your cries and your words. I am sorry I gave up my chances of living a normal life simply to be used by you.

I truly wish that Jenova is revived... I know Sephiroth is alive yet. Yes... that is how I shall exact my revenge upon you, worthless Planet! I shall myself be revived through him, and together we will fulfill what I should never have interefered with!

I forever hate you, Planet. You destroyed my life. You shall rue the day you have forsaken your own daughter!

--*--*--

Author's Note: Well, this sure is a far cry from my usual writings. Not the usual happy-ending now is it? Expect even more evil to sprout within our little flower-girl...


	2. His Crying Goddess

--*--*--

Please sweet goddess with your powers;

Lead me to a crying star.

She's a child and lost,

Playing hide and seek,

Still just a little crybaby...

-- "Maigo" (Tonari no Totoro)

--*--*--

He still heard her cries... oh gods, how they haunted him still! He had never once heard the cries of the Planet... but he had heard her desperate cries, every night... every day... each and every waking moment of his life, there were her screams of agony and pleads for salvation.

Sephiroth was once such a strong man. Now, he looked at himself with utter disgust. Why was he alive? He was sure Strife had taken care of him quite thoroughly. No, no, that would be too merciful... Sephiroth had awoken bloody, broken, yet alive. He awoke in the Ancient Forest, for reasons beyond his comprehension. He had been 'alive' for nearly a month now, and not a single day had gone by in which he did not hear her cries. 

Aerith's cries.

That weak little slip of a girl, she had died so easily at his blade. He cringed at the thought. Back then, it was not truly him... it was a clone, albeit he was the one possessing it, manipulating it to do his deeds... Jenova was to be thanked for that. No, Sephiroth had resided within a tomb of ice for the longest time, until finally his 'Mother' summoned him to what was supposed to be their finest hour, when this world would have ended and a new one begun... under his Godlihood.

But back then he was simply a spectator, letting Jenova use his abilities to kill that little girl and end her interference. He could not describe the way he had felt then, when Masamune had gutted her through and through. He felt remorse then. He knew that her blood would stain him forever, and that he would never be able to wash himself of her. Her blood. That lovely blood that had spilt so gracefully upon the marble altar, like a lamb to the slaughter.

A lamb to the slaughter, indeed. The innocent daughter died for the Planet. But Sephiroth got the feeling that all was not well, for he had heard her screams endlessly since he had first awoken.

Screams.

Her lovely screams. Her breathy gasp, her lungs desperately trying to take in air. Futile.

Her death was a work of art, and he... had been the artist. Ah, the lovely flower girl, so early robbed of her innocent little life. Silly little flower girl, giving up her life for a worthless Planet when she could have joined with him. Oh, she would have made such a lovely goddess... she would have been his Aphrodite. But no, his silly goddess gave her life up, a life better shared with him.

'Oh, my silly little Aerith, perhaps it is not too late.' Sephiroth smirked.

Then came her cries.

They were the most heartbreaking sounds he had ever beared to hear. Wrenching enough to strike sadness even in the stone heart of Sephiroth. They were pitiful, hopeless cries, begging for help beyond the grave.

They were cries he had suffered to hear for so long. Cries that tore at his soul, his mind, begging and pleading for him. Begging, pulling, tearing, rending!!

Sephiroth fell to his knees and vomited.


	3. Painful Dreams

_The you that was embraced by fate  
Blooms in season like an ephemeral flower,  
Leaving behind the scent of hope on your chest  
Scattering hurriedly in splendid form..._

_When eyes are closed as if in prayer,  
The world simply disappears there into the darkness...  
Even so, my heartbeat starts again,  
Looking for a bounded eternity..._

_Neon Genesis Evangelion- "Tamashii no Rufuran" (Soul's Refrain)_

------

He was dreaming again.

Was he dreaming?

Was it...real?

Sephiroth looked around him. He stood in the center of the Ancient City, near a lake...

_Help me, Sephiroth..._

Sephiroth walked to the shoreline, looking out across the crystal clear waters. Warily, he ventured into the water, walking across the sloping cliff until the water reached his waistline. He looked down into the water, and there it was.

Aerith's corpse, in perfect condition. Her brown hair pillowed around her, bits of sand entwined in the strands. The hem of her dress wafted in the soft current, as did her hair. Her arms lay at her sides, held out like an angel...

Sephiroth heard thunder in the distance, but paid it no mind. He looked at her face. Her features were so peaceful... so serene, as if she were sleeping... her eyelids so gently shut in her eternal slumber...

The water began to swirl around him, ever so softly.

Thunder boomed overhead once more, followed by violent bursts of lightning. He looked up into the sky.

Black clouds swirled above the trees, above the coral. The water began to rise around him, and it swirled with more force now.

Sephiroth gasped when the current swept him off the cliff and dragged him underneath the surface. He flailed his arms, reaching upwards, trying to grab onto something, anything! His fingers grazed the edge of the cliff before he was sucked under, brought down to the bottom of the lake, the crystal clear all around him.

He saw Aerith's corpse. It began to change before his eyes. Blood spewed forth from her lower stomach, where he had stabbed her, and dissipated into the water around him.

The whole lake turned a shocking shade of red. Aerith's eyes shot open, empty, transparent emerald eyes staring into his, penetrating his very soul. She screamed!

_SEPHIROTH!!!!_

Her body crumbled and was absorbed in the water.

------

Sephiroth's vision faded to black, and all was nothing again. He was floating, and then he heard it again. He heard her voice.

_Please hear my cries, Sephiroth._

_I need you._

_Save...me... so we may have our revenge._

"How can I save you?"

There was no answer.

"How do you expect me to raise you when you don't tell me how?"

_Jenova..._

"What? What about Jenova?"

Silence once more.

Sephiroth awoke, in a cold sweat, gasping for air.


End file.
